Nurses' key to preventing tragedy

Nurses can help highlight patient needs, the RCN said

Nurses have a key role to play in guarding against tragic events in the NHS such as the Bristol baby heart deaths, according to a leading nurse.

Beverley Malone, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, will tell the RCN's autumn conference in London a "cultural transformation" is needed to prevent a repeat of that tragedy.

The report into events at Bristol Royal Infirmary, published in July, concluded that between 30 and 35 children who underwent heart surgery at the hospital between 1991 and 1995 died unnecessarily as a result of sub-standard care.

The culture and environment that allowed these tragedies to happen exists, or has the potential to arise, in settings throughout the NHS

Beverley Malone, RCN General Secretary

The RCN is also publishing its response on Wednesday to July's Bristol Infirmary Inquiry report, which made almost 200 recommendations.

It stresses that when things go wrong, nurses have a duty to report incidents as honestly as possible.

But the RCN says staff should not receive immunity from disciplinary action by their employer or regulatory body.

Instead, staff should be able to report incidents to an independent body.

Patient-centred care

One of the key measures which will help prevent such tragedies is a "partnership" between nurses and patients.

It adds that, because of their day-to-day contact with patients, nurses are ideally placed to ensure patients are at the heart of decisions made about how care is provided.

Ms Malone is set to say: "The culture and environment that allowed these tragedies to happen exists, or has the potential to arise, in settings throughout the NHS and indeed the whole of the health care sector in the United Kingdom - and further afield.

Ms Malone will add: "It will take nothing less than a cultural transformation and reform to enable nurses to help build a truly patient-centred health service, fit for the twenty-first century.

"Without reform, the extra funding that is coming through simply won't be enough to achieve a better service for patients".

'Not just one hospital'

She will add: "This isn't about just one hospital or one group of nurses or doctors.

"This isn't just about children's care, or children's cardiac surgery.

"This isn't just about what happened in one city in England.

Rebecca Howard, director of nursing at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, and a panel member of the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry will also speak at the conference.

She will speak about the lessons which can be learnt from events at Bristol, and talk about the skills and competence needed from newly qualified NHS staff right up to senior managers.